Cambodia backs off threat to scrap Australian refugee deal

[geovalin]

Cambodia agreed on Wednesday to take in more refugees from an Australian detention center in the South Pacific, despite having indicated earlier it would pull out of the controversial resettlement agreement having taken in only four people.

Prime Minister Hun Sen held talks with Australia's immigration minister, Peter Dutton, and both agreed to stick to the plan to take small numbers of refugees from Nauru on a voluntary basis, a Cambodian official said.

"We want to have more refugees come, a group of four or five people at a time," the prime minister's aide, Sry Thamrong, told reporters.

"Under this agreement with Australia, we will push it forward," Sry Thamrong said, adding Cambodia would send a team to Nauru to interview more detainees.

Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers sailing from Indonesia and Sri Lanka and landing on its shores, instead intercepting boats and shifting the people to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

As part of the deal with Cambodia announced a year ago, Cambodia would get A$40 million $28 million) in additional aid from Australia regardless, of how many asylum seekers it takes.

Last week, Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Sopheak said there were no plans to accept more, adding: "The less we receive, the better."

Australian officials, however, denied the deal had collapsed.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/09/us-australia-cambodia-idUSKCN0R91KT20150909

[geovalin]

Cambodia agrees to resettle more refugees from Nauru

Lindsay Murdoch, Nicole Hasham

Bangkok: Immigration minister Peter Dutton has met Cambodia's strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen to salvage a $55 million agreement with the impoverished nation to resettle more refugees from Nauru.

Only days after declaring it had no plans to resettle more than four refugees who arrived in June, Cambodia says it is now ready to take more in groups of four or five.

The breakthrough came after Mr Dutton flew to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh from Europe where he held talks on Europe's migration crisis.

Mr Dutton said meetings he held with Mr Hun Sen and the country's powerful Interior Minister Sar Kheng "reinforced the

He indicated that more refugees on Nauru had "expressed interest in moving to Cambodia" but gave no details.

Senior Cambodian official Sri Thamrong told the Phnom Penh Post that Cambodia is "ready to accept more refugees… we will send our officials, a team from the Ministry of Interior, to interview them."

"We want to have more refugees come, a group of four or five people at a time," he said.

Mr Dutton last week downplayed reports the agreement with Cambodia appeared to have collapsed and suggested that more refugees from Nauru may be willing to give up their hopes of reaching Australia to take a one-way flight to Cambodia, one of the world's poorest nations.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak had earlier said the agreement with Australia remained valid "but at the moment we want to see the first pilot refugees that have already arrived here integrate into our society before we accept newcomers."

The agreement gives Cambodia the right to decide how many refugees it accepts.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/cambodia-agrees-to-resettle-more-refugees-from-nauru-20150909-gjj0ta.html#ixzz3lJ3LaHEn

[canopus1969]

Of course they will agree - why, well money is the answer !

[kinmaew]

Guess the Cambodian ministers must be in the final stages of their house purchases in North London so they will actually need the cash from the AUS gov to complete the sale. Its great my taxes go to such "Humanitarian Efforts"

[tracker1]

$55 million for 4 refugees why would you want to scrap the deal ? Oh for more money of course !!!!!

[rethaier]

Unless they accept a few hundred it would be cheaper to keep them in Australia.

[weegee]

And dont forget the $230 million committed yesterday by Australia,,,,to go to those so called refugees poring into the EU...

What a joke !!!

Wont even look after the Australian with a genuine claim for support, and then throw money at muslims that wont stand up for their own country, run away, and bludge on some other country......bye bye Tony....the people who built Australia have had enough of you already......